The Fray - a Denver based piano-based pop/rock quartet - have stumbled on
the new century's best promotional devise for breaking new music: getting songs
from "How to Save a Life," the band's '05 debut, placed on hip, young adult t.v.
shows like "Grey's Anatomy." This was so affective, making "Over My Head (Cable
Car)" and the disc's title track nearly omnipresent, that listening to the
band's self-titled follow-up, that I find my self wondering which of the doctors
will be leaving the bar alone in the rain, while two others are making love
during the end of show montage for which the music seems designed. Which is to
say, that this is commercially smart, but not very convincing or substantial
music.
Besides the Coldplay like piano/drum play, The Fray's only real
distinguishing mark is Issac Slade's tediously studied world-weary vocals. One
wonders if the kids will think of this music as emo... whatever that means. I
just keep wondering what happened to musicianship? For instance, these
nondescript mid-tempo cuts have no "solos" per se. I keep imagining a Bruce
Hornsby or even Elton John piano solo, which never happens, or a guitar solo of
significance (okay there's an effort made toward the end of "Ungodly Hour," like
David Lindley used to play over the warblely crooning and piano of Jackson
Browne. It seems these songs would fell less like musical wallpaper, and
perhaps Slade wouldn't sound so precious, if the emotional power of the song was
dispersed throughout the band.
Of course, this is one of those bands where Christian audiences have begun
to suggest that there is a subtle spirituality at work, and that would seem to
be the case on the first single, "You Found Me." The image of God smoking a
cigarette on an urban street corner seems contrived to feed such conjecture, but
it also seems calculated (along with the "Ungodly Hour") to sound too worldly -
that even though I like the image of looking for God only to be found a
favorable one, it tends to lose points for heavy handedness.
But musically, The Fray feels to formulaic. Only "We Build Then We Break"
suggests that there's a band in there with something they want to play,
something they really need to say. I want to hear that band's next record.
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